Chocolate hot-milk sponge fairy cakes

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat the eggs and sugar using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan over a low heat until the butter has melted; do not boil as the liquid will evaporate. Stir in the vanilla.

Fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, then mix in the milk and butter.

Spoon the mixture into a well-greased 12-hole muffin pan, filling each hole until just below the rim. Bake for 12 minutes, or until risen and springy to the touch. Allow to cool, then remove from the pan.

Using a serrated knife, carefully cut the tops o the cupcakes, then cut the tops in half to make “wings”.

Pipe or dollop some crème fraîche onto the tops of the cupcakes and place the butterfly wings at an angle in the crème fraîche. Decorate between the wings with raspberry jam.

Cook's note: “My mother’s birthday party spreads were legendary – Boudoir biscuit racing cars, canned pear mice on green jelly grass – all the classics. And no seventies kids’ party worth its chocolate vermicelli was complete without ‘butterfly cookies’. My mom was also famous for her hot-milk sponge chocolate cake that she’d make for the cake stand at school fêtes. It never actually made it to the stand on the day, as one of the teachers always ‘booked’ it. I like to imagine there was a scrum in the hall among the cardboard cake boxes and someone socked it to the horrible PE teacher with her hairy knees. These are a mash-up of those signature cakes.” – Kate Wilson

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